Day 1 NaNoWriMo

Today marks the first day in the NaNoWriMo challenge. I am off to a good start. The creative juices weren’t exactly flowing when I woke up this morning. I decided to watch a movie. I pulled up what I hadn’t seen and picked Camp X-Ray (2014). I will put up a Movie in Review post later.

Right now it’s all about NaNoWriMo. Ever since I read the book, No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty, I have been waiting for November to get here. I had already finished my first book Adoptive Personality: Book 1 of the Killer Trilogy series. I was working on my second Abduction at Home: Book 2 of the Killer Trilogy series.

I had many ideas for new books but only one was a YA my daughter could read. Edgewood Drive originally was going to be an adult Thriller. But my middle child, a preteen, was upset I wasn’t writing a book she could read. From there Edgewood Drive evolved into a YA Paranormal Adventure. The story line has been playing through my head for months now. The months of anticipation ended today when I wrote the first line. It felt so good to start the manuscript.

My inspiration for this series comes from life experience, family connections, friendships I’ve made, Janet Evanovich’s character Stephanie Plum, Nancy Drew, Veronica Mars, and Goonies. I love their spirit of adventure and comedic story lines. I hope to live up to them with my newest endeavor.

Before sitting down to write line one I had my inspirations and story board containing setting, main characters, family members, main plot, and subplots. I also have a list of research I will need to verify as my story unfolds.

I have a separate monitor hooked up to my computer. So I was able to play Nancy Drew while writing on my PC. I also watched the Goonies. I don’t have a playlist of music to listen to but I do have movies and books that inspired my story. They helped the creative process. At the end of my first writing day I finished with 1,841 words. 174 more words than was the target of the day. That puts me ahead of the game for tomorrow. Yeah!

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This is the current synopsis for Edgewood Drive:

How would you react if your young daughter started having a conversation with thin air? Would you think she’s playing? What if she’s only 2 1/2 years old? Hayley sees the auras of most of her ghosts. Some of them are good and some of them are bad but she interacts with them all.

Hayley is now a preteen determined to start her own investigation agency with the help of her ragtag bunch of friends. In this novel you will be introduced to each member of the team and learn the hilarious back stories that make each unique. Along the way the team must solve the dying wish of a ghost 15 years dead. It’s a story of long lost love and a deep secret.

This is the excerpt I am willing to share:

I don’t know if many of you know this but ghosts are real. I’m living proof. Yeah, I know that’s ironic but it’s me. My name is Hayley and I see ghosts. I have since I was just a little girl. It freaked my family out at first but they’ve gotten used to it. I mean, they’ve been dealing with it for about ten years. If they’re not used to it by now there is nothing I can do to help them.

At first I just saw auras. My ghosts came color coded or that’s how I like to think of them. As I got older, my powers seemed to develop. I can now see what they looked like at death. The colors are just the background. I am able to communicate with them. Some of them just want help. But others want to terrorize. I try to stay away from those kinds.

This all started for me when I was about 2 ½. The first ghost I ever saw was pink. My mom would find me up in the middle of the night playing with her and laughing because I was being tickled. Of course, she couldn’t see what I see. Other times she saw me looking at what she thought was nothing and babbling. But she let me have my imaginary friend. She would tell me to go back to bed. Play time was for day light hours. When I was old enough to speak, she caught me running down the hall like I was being chased. I would tell her I was playing hide and seek. The pink ghost had found me and I was running to base before she could tag me.

The orange ghost was mean to me. It would scream in my ears, pull my hair, and jerk the covers off me while I slept. I would run into my mom’s room crying and tell her he wouldn’t leave me alone. I must have slept in her room for months that year. I wouldn’t even go back into my room. He liked to hide under my bed or in the attic.

There was also a red guy. He always wanted me to go somewhere with him. When I told my mom she told me I wasn’t allowed to talk to him. He liked to stand on the outskirts of our yard. My mom warned my brothers and sisters to keep an eye on me when I was outside.

I had a babysitter that got so spooked she refused to keep watching me. When I was about four we were driving by a cemetery. I asked her who all the people were in the cemetery. She took her eyes off the road long enough to look puzzled. She didn’t see who I saw. She wanted to know what people I was talking about. I couldn’t believe she didn’t see all the people standing around. She seemed really scared of me after that and it wasn’t long before she quit babysitting.

She didn’t believe I could really see ghosts until the day I told her about the book of the dead. I was too young to articulate what I meant so my mom and dad scoured the house looking for the book. They even brought my brothers and sisters in on the search. When I couldn’t take it anymore I walked over to the bookcase pointing out a photo album. My mom was in complete shock. The photo album contained all of our deceased relatives. I know it’s weird, my family is special. I opened to one of the last pages and pointed out my pink ghost. It was my aunt Deborah. She’d been gone six years. That was when my parents got in touch with South Shadows.

Until next post…

Stay tuned for more NaNoWriMo about Edgewood Drive .

Related posts: 2014 NaNoWriMo Homepage